As a wife and a mother I feel like it is my responsibility to create a beautiful, comfortable home that we all want to come home to at the end of the day. My daughter and I were talking about how a mom changes a "house" to a "home" and the work that she puts into it. I asked her if she would like to come home to a dark, cold, and messy place. She off course said no. Even though she is 7, she already understands the importance of having a comfortable and clean home for your family. A lot of times in life we put our best foot forward when we are around friends, coworkers, customers and so on. But when it comes to our family at the end of the day, we are to tired. We throw some pizza on a paper plate and call it a day. We do not want our family to feel like an after thought. They should come before our friends and coworkers. We are given the powerful gift from God to be the nurturers in our family, and a lot of times we fall short on how we present life in general to our family. It could be something simple as using pretty napkins at dinner, it could be taking an extra hour out of your day to cook some pasta and toss a salad together for a home cooked meal, it could be as simple as lighting a candle, or cleaning the bathroom. I want my family to feel loved and taken care of, I want them to feel like mom has time for them. I want my family to feel not only is this the place they want to go to, but stay there to, I want then to feel like our home is the paradise.

Sure, I have some days where I am just to exhausted to cook dinner, and that is ok. It usually means that I either took my kids on a "field trip", or I was cleaning my home, grocery shopping, or working in the yard, Again, I have been creating a "home" by doing these chores. Now my family has a clean home to come home to, the fridge is stocked with food, and the yard is clean, which means my husband doesn't have to go out and mow the lawn when he comes home; so we get to spend more time with together with the entire family.

Lets take the time and create a lovely home for our families to come home to at the and of the day. We should not do it for praise, because the bible tells us that whoever was first will be last. We should want to do this because we love our families and this is a way for us to express our love. We should do this so children can replicate this when they grow up, we should do this to please my Lord, because Proverbs 31:13 says "She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the days work for her servant girls. "

If you would like to take a moment in prayer with me,

Our Heavenly Father, I thank you for making me a nurturer for my family.

You can see how much I love them, even though I do not always show it.

Help me put my family first even if I have have had a long hard day.

It is my desire to create a loving home for my family, a place they will want to come home to, A place where your light shines.

Please help me be a loving mother and wife and remember that I can ask for help and rely on your strength when I have none left; for patience when mine is often gone and for wisdom and your endless well of compassion and love I need as a mother.

Add cooked chicken and peas to the sauce mixture, and bring to slow boil again.

Add thyme, pepper and salt to taste. You can taste the creamy sauce and add enough for your taste (sometimes if your chicken isn't salted it effects yours sauce, so you want to taste and season after you add the chicken)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pour chicken mixture into a casserole dish.

Cut puff pastry into strips with a pizza cutter and put in a criss cross pattern.

This is now my favorite new dessert! Forget cakes, pass along the creme brûlée. I think this is a perfect dessert after a filling meal, you know when you want something sweet but to to heavy?

It also makes a beautiful presentation and can be made a day or two before your dinner. It is surprisingly easy to make, you just need to invest in some ramekins (which I bought at Target) and a torch which I got on Amazon)

Just make sure you torch the sugar before serving and do not stick it back into the fridge. I learned my lesson after the sugar liquified.

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream

3 large eggs

½ cup sugar (plus extra for caramelizing)

1 vanilla bean

Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 300°F and set your ramekins into a large baking dish.

Add 2 cups of heavy cream into a small saucepan, split vanilla bean and scrape the beans into the cream, I also toss the bean into the cream to get as much flavor as possible.

Once spring rolls around, and the beautiful flowers start blooming outside, I get so excited! I don't know about you, but every time I see my plants coming up from the dirt, it gives me such joy in my heart. It's almost like a promise they are keeping. They are saying, "see we told you that we would see you again next year. " This means so much to me since I am not much of a gardener.

Spring makes me so happy when I am outside, so I want to bring the beautiful colors indoors to. I made some new pillow covers (you can see my tutorial on easy envelope pillow covers here)

New pillow covers completely change up the space, you have so much options at the fabric store, you are guaranteed to find something you like. I saw this peacock fabric and fell in love with it, it was also 40% off!

I ended paying around $40 for fabric, not bad for 8 pillows!

I hung up my old chevron curtains up and purchased these two new chairs from Target, which were on a major sale! I think I paid $103 per chair!

I started making these cookies a few weeks ago and ever since we are all hooked!

They barely last two days and then they are all gone! This week I made 3 batches of them, one for our neighbor and two batches for us. If you want a big, fat chewy cookie that you would find at a bakery, then you will love these to!

This recipe makes 12 giant cookies. INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions:

1.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets, line with parchment paper or use non stick mat like I do.

2.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the dry ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate/butterscotch chips by on the lowest setting of your stand mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

3.

Bake for 13-15 in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

A few sabbaths ago, there was a skit performed in church and it has been on my mind lately

I don't remember it word for word but it went something like this:

A young girl who is tired of making the wrong choices in her life asks Jesus to take over and help her make all the decisions in life, she sits "Jesus" on a stool and tells him to make her decisions and he agrees.

Soon her friends come one after another asking her to come do things with her: go partying, stealing, joy riding, drinking, smoking and so on. Although it is hard to say NO, with Jesus' help she does. Her friends start looking down on her and not wanting to spend time with her, then finally there is a party she wants to go to where the boy she likes will be there, Jesus says NO because the parents will not be home, there will be underage drinking and more. But the young girl really wants to go and says that she is tired of being lame and an outsider and pushes Jesus off the stool and says that she wants to make her own decisions from now on, so Jesus leaves.

It was a nice skit, but I kind of forgot about it. Now a few weeks later I can't get it out of my head.

This young girls temptations don't apply to me, but I have so many of my own temptations and faults in life like being quick to judge, being impatient, being materialistic, raising my voice, telling lies, putting other things before spending time with God, and so much more.

I asked Jesus into my life, yet a lot of times I don't listen to what he is saying. I think I am doing nothing wrong, but after I do what seems like little things, I start feeling the regret and pain in my heart.

So I am praying and asking Jesus to help me make the right decisions before hand. So when I look back on my day, I don't feel regret, but peace that I made the right choices.

If you would like, pray with me and ask him to help you to.

Our Heavenly Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am so sorry, and you see that I want to turn away from my sinful life.

I pray that you forgive me and help me make the right decisions in life to avoid sinning again.

Your son, Jesus died for my sins, he suffered and injured so much for me.

He was resurrected from the dead and is alive!

I ask Jesus to come and sit on this "stool" in my heart and help me make the right decisions in my life. I ask for the Holy Spirit to help me obey you and do your will every day of my life.